Microprocessors are used in a variety of HA/HR (High Availability/High Reliability) applications such as telecommunications. Generally, HA/HR applications often attempt to have 99.999% availability (dubbed “five nines”), or more simply put, less than five minutes of total down time each year. A significant factor in down time is part replacement. For example, if a microprocessor experiences failure, time is required to find and replace the defective component. HA/HR systems often feature substantial redundancy to make such equipment defects transparent to a user, however, such redundancy comes at a price. Another factor in attaining acceptable HA/HR performance is the reliability of each individual system element. In general, the overall reliability of a given system is often only as good as its least reliable component.